ADHD / Anxiety Archives

5 Creative Ways to Teach Students with ADHD

December 1, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

By Leah Levy
Original Source: Edudemic
Originally posted November 10, 2014

Recently, the NY Times ran an excellent article entitled: A Natural Fix for ADHD. In this piece, Dr. Richard Friedman, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Director of the Psychopharmacology Clinic at Weill Cornell Physicians, explores the neuroscience behind ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). In so doing, Friedman attempts to reframe our understanding of just what ADHD is, and how much more nuanced our approaches for treating it need to be.

ADHD in the Classroom Has Long Been a Controversial Topic

On the one hand, advocates of pharmaceutical interventions like Ritalin and Adderall point to the substantial scientific and anecdotal evidence confirming that ADHD medications help students concentrate in the classroom and better manage their workloads at home. Many teachers consider these medications essential in terms of classroom management, as untreated students with ADHD can derail class discussions and require the teacher to devote enormous wells of energy just to keeping the class in line. (That said, it should be noted that ADHD manifests in many forms and affects quieter students at high rates as well; in fact, ADHD can take an even more serious toll in this case, as it often goes undiagnosed for much longer). For these reasons, it is not uncommon to hear teachers, parents, and even students themselves refer to ADHD medications as a “miracle.”

However, take a scroll through the comment section of any article written in support of these medications, and you are bound to see many commenters offering stories of inappropriate medication use. ADHD is often used as a catch-all diagnosis for all perceived behavioral issues, as it is easier to prescribe medications without probing further into root causes of outwardly displayed symptoms. Many parents and students describe feeling pressured into taking medication, and often lower resource students aren’t given any outside support beyond the prescription. When these students become adults, they describe feeling like they were pathologized for brain chemistry that was out of their control.

And yet every teacher, counselor, and administrator knows the frustration that ensues when a student clearly has ADHD and a family dismisses the medication route out of hand. Many counselors feel that treating ADHD with medication is just like treating depression, anxiety, and any other condition that arises in the brain.

Is there a compromise to be made here by stitching together a pharmaceutical, behavioral and pedagogical approach customized to suit the unique needs of the individual student? The answer to that is a clear yes — but in order to get to what that approach might look like, we first must begin with a deeper look at ADHD itself.

The Neuroscience Behind ADHD

ADHD may sound like a singular diagnosis, but it actually falls into three different subtypes. For students who mostly exhibit symptoms of inattentiveness, studies indicate that the neurotransmitter norepinephrine is at the root of the problem; that is, these students have variations in their norepinephrine transport genes that make it so that the amount of norepinephrine circulating in their systems is different than that of neurotypical control subjects.

In contrast, students with the hyperactivity-impulsivity ADHD tend to have fewer dopamine receptors. As Dr. Friedman describes it in his NY Times article, dopamine is a part of our brain’s reward pathway, so with fewer receptors available, students with this kind of ADHD need more stimulation in order to keep their minds’ from wandering. By blocking the reuptake of dopamine, stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall keep the levels of dopamine high in the brain, while a nonstimulant like Strattera blocks the reuptake of norepinephrine. In this way, all three medications (and medications like them) help students to focus.

(Wondering what the third subtype of ADHD is? A combination of the previous two.)

When ADHD Was an Evolutionary Advantage

Look up any definition for ADHD and you will find a laundry list of oft-repeated symptoms: easily distracted; has trouble maintaining attention; disrupts class; fidgets; always on the go; blurts out answers; butts into conversations. The list goes on.

But while these symptoms may be clear, there is less agreement on just how to interpret them. For instance, when Stephen Tonti spoke about his ADHD at TEDxCMU, he argued that attention “deficit” is a misnomer, as people with ADHD can hyperfocus when the task at hand interests them. Instead, he locates the heart of his difficulty in selecting something to apply that full attention to, and argues that what he experiences is a difference in cognition rather than a disorder. He is, in his own words, “attention different.”

In his NY Times piece, Dr. Friedman focuses on the tendency of the ADHD-brain to seek out novel experiences. In so doing, he argues that ADHD was once evolutionarily adaptive, pointing to a recent study of the Ariaal, a mostly nomadic tribe in Kenya with a recently splintered and settled subgroup. The study found that nomadic men with a dopamine receptor variant related to ADHD were more likely to be well-fed, while those with the variant in the settled splinter tribe were gaunt. Friedman hypothesizes that ADHD is adaptive for a dynamic environment, in which novelty-seeking and a short attention span actually keep nomads aware of their surroundings and make them better hunters. In contrast, ADHD becomes problematic in a more sedentary culture where activities like school, farming, and selling goods require more sustained focus.

This explanation gels with a critique often raised by ADHD advocates: that it is not the ADHD-brain that is problematic, but an overly regimented school environment constructed for an industrial age with a high need for workers and bureaucrats. Still, whether you agree with that statement or not, this is the system we have right now, and students with ADHD will need to navigate it both here and as they enter the work world. What’s more, teachers must have the ability to teach their classes without constant interruptions.

5 Creative Approaches

1. Get Hands-On

Many students with ADHD work best with hands-on learning. As such, to appeal to their learning style, it is often better to “do” rather than “tell.” Whether it’s engineering their own popsicle stick building, manipulating blocks, typing on a computer, drawing illustrations for a class book, putting science into action in the lab, participating in a Maker Fair, or getting to be the “teacher for the day,” hands-on activities are sure to engage and build confidence.

That said, it’s important not to assume that all students with ADHD will be kinesthetic learners, and to engage students in the modality that most speaks to them. We recommend having your student take a learning styles quiz to give you a grounding for developing customized approaches.

2. Vary the Routine

If we know that students with ADHD are novelty-seeking, why not use that to our advantage? Keep lectures as short as possible, and rotate students often through activities. While it is important to keep students with ADHD organized with a structure you have provided, changing the routine up once in awhile will be a nice surprise and will help prevent boredom. Encouraging students with ADHD to pick up extracurricular activities can also be useful, as it will allow students to hyperfocus with their passions and also to nibble at many different tasks throughout the day.

3. Incorporate Movement Into Your Lesson Plans

If you’ve determined that your student with ADHD is a kinesthetic learner, there are many creative ways to incorporate movement into the classroom. When reviewing questions for an upcoming test, try tossing a ball to students you want to call on rather than addressing them by name. Acting out great scenes from history will embed facts and dates deeply into student minds, as will turning letters and sounds into characters and acting out their characteristics as you are teaching a class to read. And never underestimate how fun it can be to simply get out of that desk, stretch, and do a little dance break!

4. Teach Mindfulness

Teaching mindfulness in the classroom is becoming an increasingly popular technique, and one that can be particularly helpful for students with ADHD — although a student with ADHD may need intensive, individual coaching in this area. In so doing, it can help to have reminder words that you can say to let a student know when it might be time to pull back for a moment, reflect, and draw on the mindfulness techniques you’ve covered previously.

5. Create a Tutoring Program

All students deserve a customized, student-centered learning experience, but students with ADHD will need extra attention in developing sets of tools and strategies for navigating the classroom. Smaller class sizes would be ideal here, but since class size is beyond teacher control, it can be more useful for teachers to advocate for a tutoring or mentoring program for the school. With one-on-one attention, students with ADHD will have someone there for them to help provide structure and stay on top of their progress, while also translating the neurotypical classroom experience for them, and helping them to develop the skillsets they need to operate well in school and beyond.

The Verdict

Students with ADHD are highly intelligent and packed with potential, just as long as they are given the resources they need to thrive. That may mean medication, but that also means working hard to find customized teaching and behavioral strategies as well. In the end, only a nuanced, multi-pronged approach will prove effective — all the more so when those approaches are backed up with a diverse support network.

Physics: What’s the Answer?

October 17, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

When I am discussing a physics problem and a student interrupts me to ask for the answer, I sometimes wait a moment before replying. Not because I don’t want the student to know the answer. On the contrary, I am pleased if he or she can get it right without my help. But if I sense that the answer is the only thing the student wants, then I wait.

Teaching physics is not just about getting the right answer to the problem at hand. It’s also about teaching how to view the natural world, how to think critically, how to approach the unknown so that the student may eventually become a master and solve a physics problem no one has ever solved before.

This sounds idealistic. Of course, the reality of homework assignments, lab exercises, quizzes, tests and exams should not be ignored—like all instructors, I want my students to do well. Furthermore, not all those who study physics in high school or college will go on to study the subject at higher levels. Nevertheless, I think it’s important when teaching physics—and science in general—to convey some sense of the whole enterprise, which goes beyond memorizing formulas or facts, but is aimed at understanding the interrelationships of nature.

And this leads to a paradox. Because the only way I am able to convey any general idea is through specific examples. That is, I work with my students, guiding them through problems and showing them how to analyze situations that are not completely general. These problems—such as throwing a baseball—usually contain some simplification (the ball doesn’t rotate) or approximation (air drag is neglected) that limits how well any result obtained (say, for the speed of the ball just before it reaches the bat) corresponds to what goes on in the real world. And yet, I still hope that the students will catch on and realize that there is a general pattern, so that they will be able to apply what they learned with the baseball to a jet of water coming out of a fountain and maybe one day to designing a missile defense system.

Therefore, after the student has asked for the answer and the wait is over, I say, “I’ll tell you the answer. But first tell me how you solved the problem.” Once the student has told me what he or she did, I’ll probe a little more and ask about the assumptions the student made or any limitations of the calculation, trying to encourage a general view of the physical principles involved. And then I’ll give the answer. Because we all like to get it right.

By Neer Asherie, Private Tutor

Can Students “Go Deep” with Digital Reading?

October 16, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

By Holly Korbey
Original Source: Mind/Shift Online
Originally posted September 9, 2014

Mark Pennington’s students often read on their laptops. Pennington, who’s a reading specialist in Elk Grove near Sacramento, Calif., sees a need to teach kids how to read digitally and stay engaged, and thinks that digital reading will eventually catch up to what kids can do reading print. When asked if his seventh-graders are more engaged when reading from digital readers or in print, he said it depends — motivation and environment play a big role.

“Most of the digital reading that students ‘practice’ is at home on Instagram, chat lines, Facebook and texting,” he said. “Since students are choosing to read and respond in these mediums, and since students have considerable prior knowledge and expertise in the subject matter, their engagement/comprehension is high.”

The trick to being a good reader, no matter the medium, is being an engaged reader, a fact that Pennington notes is well-supported by research. “It’s pretty clear that good readers are active readers engaged with the text,” he said.

“You can also flip back and forth very easily, and spatially, there are advantages to print media.”

One of the best ways for readers to show engagement with the text, he said, is through marginal annotations.

“There are real advantages to print,” he said. “You can write on the text right there,” noting that if students aren’t allowed to write in textbooks, they can use small sticky notes that come off easily. “You can also flip back and forth very easily, and spatially, there are advantages to print media.”

Making those annotations in digital readers, like iPads and Chromebooks, can be more challenging than grabbing a pencil and sticky note.

When Pennington’s seventh graders took the Smarter Balanced Assessment in English Language Arts on new Chromebooks last April, Pennington didn’t teach them how to use the test’s annotation feature. Students would have been able to highlight reading passages and take notes on the text to help them answer test questions. He thought it was too complicated for them to learn how to use well in time for the test.

“It was so cumbersome,” he said. Students had to turn on the annotation feature, move back and forth between screens, remember the location of the notes, and then return to the questions they were trying to answer. He said for most of his students, it would have been tricky to “walk and chew gum at the same time,” so he shelved it.

Drawback of devices… for now

While ever more schools adopt textbooks and student reading materials to digital readers like iPads and Chromebooks, some recent research suggests students may comprehend more from reading print. Middle school students who read from both print and e-books showed they understood more of what they read from the ink-and-paper books, according to one preliminary study presented by Heather Ruetschlin Schugar and Jordan T. Schugar of West Chester University.

Although tablets and touch devices allow readers to interact in innovative ways, the researchers wrote, “Reading comprehension research with multi-touch devices is still in its infancy and students will need to adapt new reading strategies in order to maximize their learning in this environment.”

For older students, the ability to take notes easily appears to be a big reason for choosing print textbooks over digital. In a Hewlett Packard online survey of 527 college students at San Jose State University, 57 percent of students who responded said they preferred print materials to e-books when studying. When citing reasons for their preference, 35 percent of print users cited “note-taking ability” as a reason for preferring print vs. six percent of those who favored e-books.The Schugars have conducted two additional studies in which grade school students better understood material when not distracted by the bells and whistles of an interactive digital book. Annie Murphy Paul, in writing about the Schugars’ work for the New York Times, wrote, “It seems that the very ‘richness’ of the multimedia environment that e-books provide — heralded as their advantage over printed books — may overwhelm children’s limited working memory, leading them to lose the thread of the narrative or to process the meaning of the story less deeply.”

Yet those who study reading seem to understand that comprehending in the new medium may require some new training and practice to receive the full benefits. In a recent New Yorker article, Being a Better Online Reader, Maryanne Wolf, author of a history of reading called Proust and the Squid, said she’s developing digital apps to help train students to deep read digitally. She cites a new study that showed fifth-graders became better digital readers after learning how to use the digital annotation feature.

“The same plasticity that allows us to form a reading circuit to begin with, and short-circuit the development of deep reading if we allow it, allows us to learn how to duplicate deep reading in a new environment,” Wolf said in the article.

Teaching new skills

Maybe new note-taking skills require nothing more than a shift in perspective. In a recent MindShift article about a one-to-one iPad program, Hillview Middle Principal Erik Burmeister said that annotating digital books gives his students a sense of freedom – a place to “dirty up” their materials with thoughts and ideas.

“In a traditional school environment, you’re given a textbook and told not to write in it at all. And this is really counter-intuitive to what we want kids to be able to do in the real world,” he said. “We want them to write all over the things that they’re reading.” Since allowing every kid to write on paper books would mean throwing away those books at the end of every year, the devices give kids the chance to annotate inside the document.

“It”s being able to engaged with the material in a really kinesthetic way,” Burmeister said. “The material is so sacred that it’s not sacred, you can really dirty it up.”

So if engaged readers annotate, and students may or may not prefer taking notes in print books, what’s next for the e-book? Where does it fit into school? What’s the best use of an e-book for learning? More research will need to be done, especially on how students use the annotation features of e-books, to get a clearer picture of how well students can take notes and be able to find them on digital readers. Perhaps technology will improve, and annotation features will become more intuitive in the next generation of devices. And maybe parents and teachers will need to distinguish reading for fun on tablets, with the distracting bells and whistles, from reading for school, where material is less interactive but more straightforward for better absorption.

Mark Pennington believes that there will always be room for both print and digital reading in school. In the mean time, he will continue teaching kids how to annotate, because giving students the “ability to talk to the text, to create an internal dialogue with the text,” is the best way to help students understand what they’re reading. Whether that ends up being most effective tapped on a tablet or scribbled in the margins remains to be seen.

Project Based Learning as a Key to Student Motivation

October 3, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

My experience as a college engineering professor for the past twenty years tells me that students who are motivated tend to perform better academically, graduate within six years of education, and to either pursue advanced degrees or transition into engineering jobs of their choosing. But how do students get motivated? Is motivation an innate skill or can it be attained? What makes a student motivated?

I am a strong advocate for project based learning. I believe that learning can only be authentic when one understands how and when knowledge attained can be applied to solve problems. I frequently give out projects in my freshman and junior classes and encourage students to think outside the box and apply what they have learned in the class to develop creative solutions. Project examples include renewable wave energy system and remotely operated vehicle designs. As I expected, students who worked on these projects appeared very enthusiastic and motivated. I was led to believe that student can become motivated when they see what they learn can be connected to reality. In other words, they see meaning in what they learn.

Five years ago, I found out motivation is not just about finding meaning in learning. I assigned a project on vegetable garden system design to my freshman students. They were to design a sustainable engineering solution based on renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and rainwater, and that can be implemented on campus. I thought students would find this project highly relevant. In contrast, I was astonished to find out students were not motivated to work on this meaningful project! I was literally back to square one about what makes students motivated.

I came across an important psychology research finding about four years ago that led me to a solution. The research [1] suggests autonomy is an important driver for motivation. Autonomy is all about having choices. When students have choices to decide what they want, they tend to take ownership of their choices, and are willing to spend as much time as they can. Think about why someone would spend enormous time and money playing a sport like hockey (I can tell you from personal experience how expensive it is!). The simple answer is that is what they want to do. The converse is true: when students are told what to do every step of the way, they don’t feel like owning the problem because they think it is not theirs. This was so true for my garden design project example. Students didn’t choose that project, I did.

Nowadays, rather than assigning projects in class, I empower students to design their own projects. There are many challenges in this approach for both students and faculty. I have to balance autonomy with guidance and direction. Students experience, sometimes for the first time, making academic decisions. The rewards for both are well worth the effort. In addition to college students, I also mentor high school students for college preparation. Recently I mentored two high school students who wanted to have project experiences; one designed an underwater scooter, the other designed a wave energy system. They both achieved a great deal in terms of levels of confidence and problem solving skills, and more importantly got offers to their first-choice universities. Based on my experiences so far, I truly believe that educators should embrace the tools of autonomy and help our kids to reach their full potential.

[1] E. L. Deci, and R. M. Ryan. Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior, NewYork: Plenum, 1985.

By Edgar An, Private Tutor

Practicing Sight Words at Home to Increase Fluency

September 23, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Word recognition is an important domain in successful reading. Being able to immediately decode and recognize words allows a reader to focus his/her attention on the meaning of the text versus interrupting comprehension to figure out individual words. Building a student’s mastery of sight words is important in supporting a student’s reading comprehension and fluency.

Sight words are words that a person should be able to identify and read automatically and depend upon the child’s age or grade. One way to support your child’s ability to recognize age appropriate sight words at home is to increase the opportunities he or she has to see and read them. For example: make flash cards with these words written on them and have your child practice reading as many as they can. This can be made into a game by recording, on a chart sheet or calendar, how many words your child has read correctly.

Another fun and effective activity to increase your child’s exposure to sight words is to label objects in your house with flashcards that have the sight words written on them (the objects should be labeled with appropriate words, e.g. a kitchen chair should be labeled “the chair” or just “chair”). Have your child go through the house and read the flashcards, have your child read the words until all the words are recited back to you correctly. As an add on to the game, have your child collect the correctly read words and leave the cards that were read incorrectly. Once all words are read correctly, have your child read the words again, and label the objects in the house with the appropriate flashcard.

These games provide more opportunities for your child to practice reading sight words. With increased exposure and practice, your child will be more likely to automatically recognize these sight words when they come across them in reading. Ultimately allowing them to read more fluently.

For a list of the 1000 most frequently occurring sight words, refer to Fry Sight-Word Inventory

By Jessi Himmelsbach, Reading Specialist